June’s Center Spotlight shines on our graduating student workers! Emily Wilson, Yessenia Torres, Karina Aguilar, and Mia Patterson are proud members of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2020, and their years of hard academic work have just paid off.

Emily Wilson graduated with her degree in Nutrition, and is still planning her career. Yessenia Torres graduated with her degree in Kinesiology, and plans to be a pediatric nurse after more school. Karina Aguilar graduated with her degree in Kinesiology as well, and plans to be an athletic trainer after pursuing a master’s degree at Texas State University. Mia Patterson graduated with her degree in Community Health and a minor in Spanish, and plans to attend nursing school.

As these young ladies learned in their college classes, they also gained valuable experience from being student employees with the Becky Gates Children’s Center. Working as a student helps to teach cooperation, planning, independence, and much more. Emily Wilson says of her time with us, “Working in the BGCC kitchen has allowed me to gain experience in a school nutrition program and will help me reach my goals.” These goals include becoming a registered dietitian and finding a career in the community nutrition setting.

These grads did not have an ordinary final semester, with many obstacles to overcome for their degrees. From switching to online classes from physical to potentially moving back home to complete their courses, it has been a strange time indeed. Something that helped lift their spirits until the postponed graduation ceremonies could take place was the online live stream of the names of all of the Class of 2020 students being displayed on the Jumbo-tron screen at Kyle Field. It took over 7 hours of streaming for all of the graduates to be recognized, but they deserve it. We look forward to their physical graduation ceremonies which will hopefully be in August.